Consulting

I offer private editing services for selected manuscripts. I love working one-on-one with writers who are committed to their projects – novels, essays, memoir, creative nonfiction – helping them make their way from draft to polished, final manuscript. I draw on extensive experience editing both in-house and freelance for the publishers Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I also hold an MFA in creative writing.

Marian is an incredibly insightful editor. Her critiques are sensitive, thoughtful, and ultimately inspiring. She gets to the heart of what’s wrong with a passage, scene, character, or plot line— and homes in on the best way to resolve the problem and deepen the story. Marian has helped me solve problems, but not only that— she’s helped me grow and and improve as a writer. — Sara Zaske, journalist, novelist, and author of Achtung Baby: An American Mom on the German Art of Raising Self-Reliant Children

Working with Marian has been an eye-opening and engaging process. She has a wonderful eye for detail and is intellectually inquisitive, probing your writing in order to get you to push it further and make it work better. Not only did she help make my manuscript better, but working with her has informed my process and pushed my writing further. A creative, thorough editor and a pleasure to work with. — Madhvi Ramani, essayist, fiction writer, and author of the Nina and the Travelling Spice Shed series for young readers

Marian Ryan is one of those rare professionals who brings both big picture perspective and an insightful focus on the nitty-gritty elements of writing, editing, and shaping prose. Fiction, nonfiction, books for adults or younger readers — Marian is equally adept in writing, editing, and otherwise shaping them. I can’t recommend her highly enough. — Robin Cruise, Former Associate Publisher, Children’s Books, Harcourt Publishers